Call for Papers

Feature photo: Men standing with pile of buffalo skulls, Michigan Carbon Works, Rougeville MI, 1892

The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
In cooperation with
Tohoku University, Japan and Sapienza University of Rome
Presents
The 9th Annual Hasekura International Symposium

Possession/Dispossession

Embodiment, Exorcism, Ownership, and Loss

June 24 and 25, 2025
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada

The 9th Annual Hasekura International Symposium will be focused on the metaphors and concepts of possession and dispossession. While we speak of various kinds of “possession”—spirit possession, drug possession, weapons possession—“dispossession” is used mostly in terms of property, and especially land under colonialism. The term also evokes the difference between possession and ownership.

But what is it to “possess” anything? Do we possess skills or knowledge, or do they possess us? How does possession(s) manifest? Who are the dispossessed and what is the difference between franchise and inalienable rights?

This symposium invites the consideration of such topics and related concerns, in an interdisciplinary environment. We invite scholars in all fields of the humanities (including religious studies, literary studies, and history), and social sciences (including anthropology, sociology, and environmental studies) to join us and present their research and insights.

Relevant topics for the symposium include, but are by no means limited to:

・The possession of technical or secret knowledge

・kinds of spirit(ual) possession

・the possession/domestication of other living creatures

・literary or artistic representations of possession or dispossession

・modernity as defined by possession and dispossession

・the loss of “personal possessions,” home, land (domicide, Porteous & Smith)

・the right to possession (e.g., firearms)

・the crime of possession (e.g., illicit drugs)

・dispossession seriatum: (e.g., early colonial settlers being themselves displaced/dispossessed by later settlers or the state

・the “sustained work” of dispossession (Stanger-Ross)

・after dispossession—storytelling and redress

・critical fabulation

Researchers interested in joining us and presenting their work at the symposium should send a proposed title and brief description (ca. 200 words) to ubchasekura2025@gmail.com by February 28, 2025. Both individual papers and organized panels are welcome. Papers will be eligible for inclusion in the symposium proceedings, published by Mimesis International.

Selected participants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs.

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